The Immortalising Power of the Shakespeare Folio Preface – Part 2
Part 2 of a 2-part series of talks on Zoom by Peter Dawkins about how the Preface of the 1623 Shakespeare Folio enshrines a deep Kabbalistic and Biblical wisdom, with cryptic wording and graphics, all with the potency and intention to immortalise the Shakespeare plays and William Shakespeare himself, as an example of the immortalising process described in the classical Gemini myth.
As we learnt in the previous talk, the Preface of the Shakespeare First Folio consists of ten printed pages that are designed to act as a Temple of the Mysteries, analogous to Solomon’s Temple, wherein the very first page of the Folio, the “To the Reader” portrait verse by “B.I.”, which precedes the ten-page Preface, has a dual purpose, acting as the twin Great Pillars, Boaz and Jachin, and as the guardian or doorkeeper, Ben Jonson.
The “To the Reader” portrait verse precedes the Shakespeare Folio title page that is the actual door to the Temple. This title page door contains, in a veiled way, a cryptic summary of what lies within. As the doorkeeper tells us, in order to open the door and enter the Temple, we have to learn how to see and to read both the text and the illustrations.
As explained in the previous talk, the ten pages of the Preface, which follow on from the Folio’s “To the Reader” page, represent the 10 Sephiroth or Emanations of the Tree of Life as experienced on the Middle Path through the Temple. The previous talk dealt with the doorway, doorkeeper, door, and first half of the Holy Place of the Temple.
In this talk we shall enter the second half of the Holy Place of the Shakespeare Folio Preface Temple, wherein lies the Altar of Incense marking the heart of the Temple. After this we shall enter the Holy of Holies, wherein lies the Ark of the Covenant and Oracle.
After 400 years, the immortalising effect can be readily seen, with the mortal actor William Shakspere from Stratford-upon-Avon raised up to be, in people’s minds, the immortal author William Shakespeare. In other words, the Gemini effect has been well proven in this grand scientific experiment.
Cost £15. To book, please contact the FBRT Secretary:
Email: sarah@fbrt.org.uk. Tel: 01295 678 623.
On receipt of payment, the Zoom link will be sent to you.
For those who attend this Part 2 talk, there will be time for questions, answers and insights after the talk. This post-talk sharing is usually full of extra information.
A recording of the talk (but not of the sharing afterwards) can be made available for attendees if requested, as also for those who pay for the talk but do not attend it live on Zoom. Please contact the FBRT Secretary.
A recording of Part 1 of this 2-part series is also available to those who book this Part 2 talk. The cost for a link to the recording of Part 1 is £15.
The cost for links to recordings of both talks, Part 1 and Part 2, is £30.